AI based RA6T1 MCUs for High Accuracy Predictive Maintenance Smart Homes, Industrial Automation, and Building Automation

With the introduction of four new RA6T1 Group microcontrollers (MCUs), Renesas Electronics Corporation has expanded its portfolio of MCUs designed for motor control applications targeting smart homes, industrial automation, and building automation. The latest member of the rapidly expanding Arm-based RA Family, the RA6T1 Group of MCUs is designed for the unique needs of motor control in home appliances, HVAC, solar inverters, and AC drives.

The new RA6T132-bit MCUs are designed based on the Arm Cortex-M4 core and operate at 120MHz and include a variety of peripherals optimized for high performance and precise motor control. The peripherals combined with high-speed analog reduces the bill of material cost and at the same time boost the motor control performance.

The Google TensorFlow Lite Microframework for TinyML applications provides enhanced failure detection to the RA6T1 MCUs, providing the customers an intelligent, easy-to-use, and cost-effective sensorless motor system for predictive maintenance. The TensorFlow AI framework indicates the users regarding detrimental anomalies in motor systems earlier with high accuracy, hence the users can improve their predictive maintenance processes and reduce maintenance cost.

The new Renesas Solution Starter Kit (RSSK) helps the developers by offering easy motor control debugging and allows customers to immediately begin evaluating their motor control design, executing real-time analysis, and tuning to accelerate development.

The motor solution package includes a RA6T1 CPU card and 48V-compatible inverter board, along with a GUI tool for a motor workbench, and a sensorless vector control sample program with a three-shunt method that corresponds with the Flexible Software Package (FSP).

Features of the RA6T1 Group of MCUs

• 120 MHz Arm Cortex-M4 with floating-point unit
• Scalable from 64-pin to 100-pin LQFP packages
• 64 KB RAM and scalable from 256 KB to 512 KB Flash
• 32-bit PWM timer with advanced functions, including support for seven types of complementary PWM modes for the carrier generation
• 250 usec sampling period when used with the motor control solution bundle
• High-speed 12-bit ADC with a maximum speed of 0.4 usec and a sample/hold function that allows simultaneous acquisition of 3 shunt currents
• 6-channel programmable gain amplifier
• Supports IEC 60730 standard for functional safety in home appliances

Note: More technical information can be found in the RA6T1 Group Datasheet linked at the bottom of this page and on the RA6T1 Group of MCUs product page.